Agenda item

7.1

The Executive Director, Children, Young People and Families, submitted a report on the attainment of children eligible for the pupil premium.  The pupil premium had been introduced two years ago, and was designed to support schools in boosting the attainment of disadvantaged children and to reduce the gap between this group and their more advantaged (non-free school meals) peers.

7.2

The report also contained details of the best practice workshop, led by the Sutton Trust, and jointly commissioned by the City Wide Learning Body and Birley Community College. The workshop focussed on the research undertaken by the Trust to measure the input which different strategies had on improving outcomes for pupil premium children, and the Toolkit which schools could employ to improve such outcomes was appended to the report.

7.3

In attendance for this item were Iain Peel, Interim Director, Inclusion and Learning Services, and Pauline Anderson, Strategic Lead – Primary.

7.4

Members of the Committee raised questions and the following responses were provided:-

·         It was not yet clear what impact pupils receiving free school meals would have on the pupil premium.  It was believed that the Department for Education would have devised a formula in terms of calculating entitlement, presumably linked to entitlement to Income Support.

·         The fact that the use of Teaching Assistants had a very low, or no impact, for a high cost, as highlighted on the Sutton Trust’s Toolkit, emphasised the importance of quality leadership and teaching.  If schools had both these qualities, they would have a far more positive impact on the Teaching Assistants, and therefore, hopefully improve outcomes for pupil premium children.

·         Whilst the statistics in terms of comparisons between attainment levels of pupil premium children and their cohort were not yet available, there was evidence of the gap between the two groups narrowing at all educational levels, apart from Key Stage 1.

·         Details of how and what individual schools were spending their pupil premium on should be published on their websites.

7.5

RESOLVED: That this Committee:-

(a)       notes the contents of the report now submitted, together with the responses to the questions raised; and

(b)       thanks Iain Peel and Pauline Anderson for attending the meeting.